Ninniku Miso-Zuke

Ingredients

handful of  fresh garlic cloves
1 cup miso paste- I prefer to use aka (red) miso, but a sweet shiro (white) or barley miso could be used too
1/4 c mirin
1 clean, dry wide-mouth quart jar

Instructions

1. Separate the garlic cloves. Trim the garlic ends, remove the outer skin and also peel off the thin filmy membrane layer.

2. Blanch garlic cloves for 1-2 minutes in unsalted water. Pull them out and pat dry them with a clean paper towel.

3. In a small bowl mix together your mirin and miso thoroughly.

4. Place a thin layer of miso at the bottom of your jar then make alternating layers of miso and garlic cloves. (Note: You don't want the cloves to touch.) Continue the layering process until you run out of ingredients or reach the top. Finish the top with a miso-mirin mixture layer and make sure all the garlic cloves are covered with miso.

5. Latch your jar and place it in the fridge. Allow it to pickle for at least 1 month. The garlic gets better with age. Keeps good up to 3-4 months.

6. When you're ready to eat the garlic, just pull out the amount you want to eat, rinse off the miso and serve. Use as an accompaniment to a meal or just eat them as a snack. I like to shove a few into the middle of my onigiris or dice it up and mix it with butter when I'm sautéing.

* Tip #1: As you clear each layer of garlic, the miso is still good and can be used in your recipes that call for miso.

* Tip #2: You can buy mirin and aka miso at most Asian speciality stores. For Sacramentans: Otos' Market on Freeport Blvd. carries both.

* Tip #3: Take the time to use fresh garlic in this recipe. The pre-peeled garlic that you can buy in bags at Costco and other grocery stores isn't as fresh and you'll notice a difference in taste.

Pickled "Easter Egg" Radishes

Ingredients

1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar (champagne vinegar can be substituted)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1 bunch of Easter Egg Radishes
4-5 spring red onions, greens removed and ends trimmed - (optional)

* Be sure to keep the greens from the radishes and the spring red onions, they're edible and delicious!


Instructions

1. Wash and dry radishes. Snip off tops and tails. Quarter or halve them (your choice).

2. In a medium sized saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar and water. Bring it to a nice boil. Stir the mixture frequently until all the sugar dissolves.

3. Remove saucepan from heat and let the mixture cool.

4. Place the cut radishes in a clean jar. I threw in a few spring red onions that I had laying around as well.

5. Pour the mixture over the radishes and onions. Cover with lid and ring.

6. Place in the fridge.

7. You can start eating them the next day. The pickled radishes will keep for 3-4 weeks.

Note: As the radishes sit in the vinegar-sugar mixture, the liquid will turn a vibrant pink/red. That's normal, don't worry.

Tip: If your radishes aren't as crisp as you'd like, drop them in some ice water and pop them in the fridge for about 15 minutes- they'll revive.

Oh cheese, glorious cheese...yum! Did you guys see that ALL CHEESE wedding cake on Cup of Jo this week? My gawd! My jaw dropped ---does it get any better than that? Well it can. Even cheese needs a sidekick. Batman had Robin, Cousin Larry had Balki and Ren had Stimpy...so what should your cheese's wingman be?  I vote for pickled grapes. Seriously, pickled grapes. They're delish. I ran across the recipe in Molly Wizenberg's book, "A Homemade Life," a few years back and these little orbs pickled with cinnamon and black pepper will rock your tastebuds. This last batch, I used some leftover muscat grapes and paired the finished product with some creamy Cypress Grove Purple Haze chevre---total foodgasm!





Pickled Grapes (adapted from "A Homemade Life" by Molly Wizenberg)

Ingredients

1 lb. seedless red or black grapes (I used muscat grapes and it came out fine.)

1 cup white wine vinegar (Make sure you're using the right kind of vinegar, please. It makes a big difference.)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds

1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

1 (2 1/2 inch) cinnamon stick

1/4 teaspoon salt


Ingredients

1. Wash and dry the grapes. Take a sharp knife and poke a slit where the grape's "bellybutton" is. This will help the pickling juices get in there. Place the cut grapes in a large bowl.

2. In a medium pot, mix the white wine vinegar, sugar, brown mustard seeds, peppercorns, cinnamon stick and salt together. Stir the ingredients up to make sure they're combined. Bring it to a nice boil. Give it one last stir, remove from heat and pour over the grapes.

3. Allow the mixture to cool to room temp and then ladle into clean jars with lids. Place the jars in the fridge and allow them to sit overnight.

4. Serve the grapes cold with your favorite cheese.

* The pickled grapes will keep for a week to a week and a half; however, the flavor will become more pronounced the longer it sits.

Can you believe it's Monday already? And how HOT it was this weekend? Hope you survived. I know the AC was turned on over here. This weekend really seemed to whiz by. Mr. S. didn't have the kidlets this weekend so we got some stuff done around his casa and around my cottage. On Saturday, we planted some of these cute Japanese boxwood bushes in front of my cottage, they're called, "Green Beauty." Aren't they gorgeous? I love how the green color just pops against the black bark.



Later that day we attended a birthday party for our friend Brian up in El Dorado Hills that his awesome wife Heather threw. It had a casino theme (she went all out and rented tables and hired dealers), it was a lot of fun. I love theme parties, especially if there's no costumes involved. (If you know me, then you know my intense dislike for having to dress up in costumes.) Sunday was all about BBQing- juicy burgers and fresh veggies. Today though, I thought I'd make another batch of these pickled shiitakes from David Chang's Momofuku cookbook. I made some several weeks ago but quickly scarfed all three jars down. If you like salty stuff over sweet, like I do then you'll positively adore these. Also, you don't have to wait to eat these, they're ready for munching immediately.



Pickled Shiitakes (adapted from Momofuku by David Chang & Peter Meehan)
(makes about a quarts worth)

Ingredients

4 loosely packed cups of dried shiitakes

1 cup sugar

1 cup usukuchi*

1 cup sherry vinegar

Two 3-inch knobs of fresh ginger peeled


Instructions

1. Soak the dried shiitakes in boiling water for about 15-20 minutes. Take the shiitakes out and set them aside. Put the leftover liquid through a fine-mesh strainer to remove any debris. Reserve 2 cups for the recipe. You can discard the rest or save it for other recipes (I like to use it as a base in recipes such as mushroom risotto).

2. Remove and discard the stems from the shiitakes. Slice the caps into strips.

3. In a pot, combine the steeping liquid, the sugar, the usukuchi, sherry vinegar, ginger and the sliced shittake caps. Place the pot on the stove over medium heat and bring to a nice simmer, for 30 minutes. Stir occassionally.

4. At 30 minutes, turn the heat off and allow the mixture to cool. Discard the ginger and pack the shiitakes (really get them in there) into the jars. Top off with the liquid (just enough to make sure the mushrooms are covered).

5. Keep refrigerated. Will be good for 1 month.

* Oto's Market on Freeport sells usukuchi.

Relationships are about balance. You gotta give a little and take a little...isn't that how the song goes? Well last weekend I got spoiled a bit rotten by Mr. S. with a wonderful dinner at Mulvaney's, one of my favorite restaurants. It was a night of delicious wine, foie, sweetbreads, bacon cheesecake...and yes, we even squeezed in a main meal in there too! (And as always, the service was fantastic.) So when this weekend, he wanted to wear jeans, see Safe House and eat some messy carnitas at a taqueria, how could I protest? After all, I've subjected him to countless romantic comedies and dragged him to I-don't-know-how-many indie flicks...so sure Denzel with a gun tonight it is (by the way, does that guy ever age?). In the meantime, this afternoon I'm going to make up another batch of these snappy Vietnamese style carrot pickles. The original recipe calls for half daikon and half carrots, but I like just the carrots. (I know, I'm a rebel.) They go perfectly with pretty much any warm weather dish (especially when I make homemade banh mi) but work well as a snack by themselves too.



Vietnamese Style Carrot Pickles (adapted from Eating Local by Janet Fletcher)

Ingredients 

1 pound large carrots, peeled

1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

1 cup unseasoned rice vinegar

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar

1 cup water

Instructions

1. Wash carrots and cut into matchstick sizes or rounds (about thickness of a quarter). Pat dry.

2. In a bowl, mix vinegar, salt , sugar and water until the sugar dissolves. Add the carrots to the mixture and let it marinate for at least 1 hour before serving.

3. For best pickled flavor, store vegetables in an airtight mason jar for about 5 days in the refrigerator.

I'm on Day 2 of my Pickling-Fest at the cottage. Today I decided to do some crunchy Asian green beans with chili peppers (yum!). I cranked out a couple of jars while listening to some Lumineers and Avett Brothers (both bands which will be coming to Sac soon- The Lumineers @ Harlows on March 27th & The Avett Brothers @ The Grove on June 24th) which made the task go by super quick. Can't wait to eat them later this week!

• 1/2 Lb green beans, washed and tops trimmed
• 3/4 C cider vinegar
• 1/4 C water
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 2 dried chiles
• 2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

Instructions

- Bring a medium sized pot with water to a boil.

- Once boiling, drop your green beans in the pot, return to a boil, and blanch for 1 minute. Then transfer the green beans immediately to an ice-water bath to stop the cooking process and keep the crunch.

- Once cooled, pack the beans vertically into a pint-sized jar.

- Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. This will help to combine all of the flavors as well as dilute the sugar into the pickling liquid. Boil for 1-2 minutes.

Rainy days make some people antsy but I always find them to be a great time to catch up on projects that I've been meaning to get around to doing...like this one for pickling garlic. I love pickled garlic and bookmarked this recipe last year after I attended a Master Canner's seminar with some friends but I never got around to making it...well, what better time than a rainy leap day to get it done?

And speaking of garlic, if you haven't read Ruth Reichl's Garlic & Sapphires yet...get to it. Reichl used to be the food critic for the NYT and then was the editor-in-chief for Gourmet magazine. She's such an eloquent writer and one of my favorite authors. If you love food memoirs, you'll love her books. Also check out: Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me with Apples, which talks about her childhood. You can find her books at your local bookstore or library.


Spicy Pickled Garlic  (recipe from Pinch My Salt)

Ingredients

Approximately 1 1/2 cups peeled garlic cloves (4 – 5 heads of garlic)

3 dried chilies

2 cups white wine vinegar

2 scant teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

special equipment: 3 sterilized half-pint jars with lids


Instructions

- Fill jars with garlic cloves and add one dried chili to each jar.

- In a small saucepan, combine vinegars, sugar, and salt.

- Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar and salt.

- Fill jars with hot liquid and screw lids onto the jars. Let cool to room temperature then refrigerate.

- Garlic should be ready to eat in about 3-4 weeks and will keep in the refrigerator for about 4 months.

Anyhow back to the canning party...unfortunately, I fell ill the day of the event and had to skip. Left with several pounds of green beans and no canning supplies, I decided to pickle the beans "refrigerator style" using this great dilly bean recipe I found on  a blog called Hell Yeah, It's Vegan (don't you just love that name?). To be safe, I sterilized the jars in the oven and boiled the rings and caps.  I also quintupled the recipe to make 5 jars worth.

Spicy Pickled Green Beans
Makes 1 serving

Ingredients

1 clove garlic

1-2 chilis or 1 tsp red pepper flakes

dill

peppercorns

1 lb fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed

1 c white vinegar

2 tbsp kosher salt

Directions

- In a clean, odorless glass jar with a well-fitting lid, add garlic, dill, red pepper, and peppercorns to taste.

- Pack jar with green beans, fairly tightly, until full. In a medium saucepan, heat water, vinegar, and salt, stirring occasionally, until salt has fully dissolved.

- Slowly pour a small amount into the jar and shake it gently; the glass must be heated slowly so it doesn’t crack.

- Slowly add the rest of the liquid, leaving about ½” head space at the top of the jar.

- Let cool for an hour or two before placing the jar in the fridge.